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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

This made the drive home really interesting...

Last weekend I bolted from San Diego for an annual get-together in Palm Springs. The event's been going on for eleven years, pulling together a bunch of my friends from the old UC Santa Barbara days. It's a tournament involving what could questionably be called a sport mixed with lots of heckling, joking and straight up insults. You know, the kind of thing guys do when they get together once a year, drink lots of beer and think they're cooler than they really are. I had a great time, even though I lost miserably (no doubt a result of being promoted to the "A" bracket- the fix was definitely in!). It was dumping rain in San Diego and I'd heard that snow levels would be as low as four thousand feet. Check out what I saw Sunday morning when I pointed the Ramble Machine west and started heading home:

Being a beach person, seeing snow jump across my windscreen like that was kind of jaw dropping. I actually pulled over to check it out and snap this photo- beautiful.

The snow actually screwed things up for me. On the way out of town, up the windy road that cuts across to the 15 freeway I was stopped by giant orange signs telling me that chains were required! Um, yeah right- got those with me, right next to my 8'6 Stamps and my fullsuit. The drive home ended up being a super roundabout, scenic tour around Ramona and Hemet (I think). I didn't mind because it was one of those early morning California days with awesome light and landscapes that I hadn't seen before. It was just a little too cold for trunks and flip flops... and that's where I draw the line- back to the beach!

I was so stoked they had these giant fans turned on- blowing winds toward the coast and giving us offshore winds. How considerate!